Foundations Is Available to Trade
John Sherwood • November 7, 2024
(Think Twice | Art by HNCL)
We Built This City
Friendly greetings and welcome! The Cardsphere team is pleased to announce all sets under the Foundations umbrella are available to trade. I'm John Sherwood, author of Tricks of the Trade, and I built this article on rock and roll. By my count, you can build a house of cards with a full grip of seven, and there's enough cards in this set to build a whole city. The sum of unique Foundations collector numbers is 1521, including nearly 200 new cards. We're going to summarize all of them in the categories you'll find here on Cardsphere.
Foundations (FDN)
With 729 collector numbers, the core set accounts for a little less than half of the total for Foundations products. Following the present patterns of modern set design, many of these cards are duplicates or reprints with special treatments. Every house (or city) of cards needs a strong foundation, and the bedrock of this set is 137 new cards. Whether bulk or bombs, these new cards will be legal across all official formats. There's a lot of typal support scattered throughout, anchored to bedrock with the new creature land Soulstone Sanctuary.
Building upon the new cards, 385 cards in the set are modern frame reprints. In a true sign of the times, one of the reprints is Shivan Dragon downshifted to uncommon. Decorating the facade of reprints, we get ten new full-art lands. These lands feature characters from around the multiverse in their color-appropriate environments, like Kaito making me jealous on an Island.
Borderless
From plucking Vorthos heartstrings on Phyrexian Arena, to fiddling with fauna of Preposterous Proportions, the borderless art goes hard. Every one of these is a smash hit.
Borderless Mana Foil
As if cranking the borderless art to eleven wasn't enough, the mana foils are dialing things up with foil fans. The Dungeons & Dragons Ampersand Promos set a clear precedent on the secondary market value for special overlays. Collectors and deck blingers will be making prime offers for these borderless cards with their shiny mana symbol overlays.
(Twinflame Tyrant Mana Foil digital render by Wizards of the Coast)
Japanese Showcase
If the Borderless cards are all hits, then the Japanese showcase cards are spinning up Platinum albums. Ranging from cuddly to kaiju, these ten select cards are an ode to action. Whether draining life totals, destroying creatures, or doubling tokens, these illustrations are leaping out of their borders and onto the table. My money might be leaping out of my wallet for Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator.
Japanese Showcase Fracture Foil
Fracture foils were a huge success in Duskmourn, and I'm excited to see their return. I don't personally collect foils, but these are genuinely dazzling and I wouldn't be sad to pull one and sell it on Cardsphere.
Extended Art
Forty-six extended art cards put the wide-angle lens on art shared with modern frame cards. My top pick from this category is Blasphemous Edict, because the extended art version reveals some sinister-looking chains hanging in the edges of the image.
Commander
The Foundations Commander (FDC) reprints of Arcane Signet, Sol Ring and Command Tower are available in the Starter Collection. These feature art we've seen before, and they only get a unique set code to keep them from being legal in Standard.
Special Guests
The ten Foundations Special Guests (SPG) are a fine spread of desirable reprints. It's a fine balance of useful cards for multiple formats without stirring up any chase rare panic. Each one is presented in a different frame, and once again I find myself wondering if I could build a deck of Mystical Archive framed cards.
Jumpstart
I loved original Jumpstart (JMP) and Jumpstart 2022 (J22), and I have high hopes for Foundations Jumpstart (J25). There is something in this set for everyone, from straightforward limited play to exciting new commanders, to broad collectability. Full Jumpsart sets are a winning formula. I might not be made of buy-a-box money, but I'm tempted to liquidate more of my collection so I can put a box in my wants on Cardsphere.
Contending like the the Empire State and Chrysler buildings to rule the skyline, J25 is a towering set like FDN. Foundations Jumpstart peaks out at 779 cards, including dozens of new cards and hundreds of reprints. I'm most excited for the 27 guest artist cards, all of which are legendary creatures. The previous Jumpstart releases made great contributions to Commander, and J25 follows suit. This set is a positive infusion into a community that needs to take a breath and remember the simple joy of building and playing a deck around a single character. As for me, I'll be sliding Dionus, Elvish Archdruid into my wants to take the helm of my Elf deck.
Those Who Love to Trade...
We salute you! This set has a lot to offer for collectors and players. Whether you're using the Starter Collection to build a cube, cracking Jumpstart packs for fun with friends, or grinding constructed games on the RCQ circuit, the Cardsphere community is here to help you turn the cards you don't want into the cards you need. Enjoy the new set, and happy trading!
Foundations - Borderless Mana Foil
